Snake Apartment from Providence, Rhode Island, were my guests on air last week, but because the archives and streams were down, you missed their live performance and interview. So this week, I've rebroadcasted most of their live set (excerpting only the first song which was wracked by some technical difficulties with our delay system anyway). Their crushing live set begins at about minute 39 or so of this program and includes six of their writhing scuzzpummellers.
MUDHONEY // Twenty Four // v/a: Dope-Guns'N-Fucking in the Streets vol 1-3 // Amphetamine Reptile 1989 PUNISHMENT OF LUXURY // Brainbomb // Secrets 7" // United Artists 1979 ANAL BABES // Sam´s Disciple (.44) // Cocaine Swastika 10" // Incognito 1998 TRACTOR SEX FATALITY // Braces // Braces 7" // Kill Sounds/Unscene Sounds *new RANCID VAT // Destroy Nature // Justice: This Is What We Do to Traitors // Horton/Reflex 1989 BILLY BAO // Bilbo's Incinerator // Bilbo's Incinerator 7" // W.Mo 2005 BRAINBOMBS // Urge to Kill // Burning Hell // self-released 1992 LANDED // Tip of the Whip // split 7" w/ Snake Apartment // Corleone/Parts Unknown *new
SNAKE APARTMENT live in Studio A
EX OBLIVIONE // Squid // v/a: World War Zero 2xCDR // Deathbomb Arc *new SEXY PRISON // Teen Wolfes Parte Like Whitney (Harg) // Italians Who Just Saw Rocky // NASCAR 2004 AGENT SIDE GRINDER // Ricochetting Memories // first 7" // Enfant Terrible *new MATTRESS // In Your Pocket // In Your Pocket 7"+CDR // Malt Duck *new MATTRESS // Mirror CHURCH POLICE // Life Is Fun // Gilligan's Wings 7" // Skulltones *new BLACK HUMOR // Burn the Welcome Mat // self-titled // Fowl 1982 BLACK HUMOR // Neo Hippies FACTUMS // White Ghost // Alien Native // Siltbreeze *forthcoming BLANK DOGS // The Doorbell Fire // The Doorbell Fire 7" // Sweet Rot ARTIFICIAL LIMBS // Sadistic Eyes // self-titled // Eat *new THE WRISTS // Lights Out/Blackout // split cassette w/ Leper Print // Eye Damage *new CATHOLIC BOYS // Plaster // Fixed 7" // Sweet Rot *new THE PIZZAS // Hideous Fashion // Pizza demos // no label *new EAT SKULL // Dead Families // demo CDR // no label *new xNOBBQx // title unknown // Sunshine of Your Love // Siltbreeze *forthcoming NIGHT WOUNDS // Less Dead // Allergic to Heat // Corleone/Woodsist 2007 NO DOCTORS // Man's Eternal Quest for Salty Pleasures // Origin & Tectonics // self-released *new NO DOCTORS // AAO BLUES CONTROL // Double Chin // self-titled // Holy Mountain *new
This playlist was also largely inspired by the first edition of the awesome Z Gun zine, published by Scott Soriano and Ryan Wells and distributed through Scott's trusty Ss recordS. I learned a lot about the Brainbombs in this issue, and there's a huge section on them including an interview by Monty Buckles of the Lamps (with an awesome foreword), a complete discog breakdown by Ryan, and a treatise by Ben Wallers of the Country Teasers which suggests how the Brainbombs are like the Rolling Stones of today. Plus, tons of record reviews and an interview with long-lost SF weirdpunkers Black Humor by enthusiast Min Yee of the A Frames. This zine is an enthralling, educational, and fun read, so I highly recommend it!
Revisiting Mudhoney was long overdue, and for a non-drinker like me, "Twenty-Four" reminds me of a few people I've known. It's not clear whether this cirrhotic slumtrip of permadrunkenness revels in far-gone alcoholism or is the first of a sobering twelve steps, but I'm thinking that it's more the former than the latter. It's like I'm wearing play-goggles everytime I hear it. Teetering and tottering and with bile foaming up to the top of his throat, Mark Arm is stumbling, but seemingly under just enough control to make his point coherently. What a fantastic distortion tone and buzzing rhythm attack this song has! It always makes me wonder why I don't come back to this band more often. Surely, Mudhoney made the most enduring music of the 90s ilk whose name shall not be repeated here.
Lesson no. 1 for me as I read Z Gun no. 1 was "Brainbomb" by Punishment of Luxury. Ryan Wells published a full review of it in "the Brainbombs section" of the zine, as the title gave those misanthropic Swedes the idea for their band name. And he's right...This UK band from the late 70s infused their glam with enough punk aggression to sound throttling enough at times to approach the menace of AmRep sounds that came a decade later. I remember listening to everything I could find by them one day, but I must've missed this great nugget.
Can it be long before somebody reissues everything ever by the Anal Babes? I'm pretty sure that this 10" was their swansong, and along with their split 7" with Turbonegro, this is their pinnacle of great scuzzpunk depravity. No "hail Odin" or Viking mythology here, but these Norwegians were probably even scarier than so many buffoonish black-metallers in ghoulish corpse paint. All the Babes' stuff has a tremendous wallop and a slashing serrated edge to it, but on this 10", there were some freakier psycho-delic guitar tricks on parade.
From Seattle, Tractor Sex Fatality show signs of the same degenerative mental disease as the patients we've mentioned so far, but they wield chainsaws (perhaps like the one pictured in the logo of the related Slicing Grandpa), and at the most delicate moments of "Braces," they chop with a set of dull cleavers.
My girlfriend has released her first record on her new label, Malt Duck Records.
Mattress "In Your Pocket" 7" vinyl w/ bonus CDR including sides A and B plus 2 more exclusive songs
Mattress is a fellow from Portland, OR, named Rex who is a mesmerizing maker of minimal electro/wave and a charismatic crooner. This is his first vinyl, too. His previous CDR-only releases have been praised in the shadowiest corners of blogosphere and compared to Suicide. Sure, it's dark stuff, but it's got a really great sense of humor, too. It sounds like it coulda been an ageless wonder from a weirdpunk comp like the Red Spot LP.
Two years ago, the most boffo electro-booyar party band NoCal has ever seen--Sexy Prison--played a "last show ever" at the DAM House in Davis which also served as bassist/programmer/culture-jammer Robert Pickle's going away party, as he was off to Rhode Island to get even smarter in Brown University's advanced geophysics degree program. Soon after, however, both he and vocalist/party-stoker "Dawson" began emailing tracks back and forth and coming up with new Sexy Prison songs. And this week, Robert is back in Sacto for Sexy Prison practice to prepare for the reignition of the live performance legend, which debuts this Saturday in my living room. In the past, this band always reminded me of what a sample-rich Mens Recovery Project dance party or a gothless Skinny Puppy gone hyphy, but now I'm thinking it's Cheveu minus the guitar-raunch, but adding Peter Hook-ish bass (you can really hear that comparison in the vokills and the beats). I also would often compare them to early Severed Heads because of the tendency to ride sample repetition almost to the edge of I-can't-take-it-anymore before changing it up. Great black humor approach to what is essentially music for a dance party.
Night Wounds are another true treasure of today's music that could be called a dance-party. They even impressed Siltblog's Roland Woodbe so much that he wrote this: It is nothin short of a goddamn pleasure to encounter a record from a Los Angeles band what's got it's limbs 'n lungs attuned to avant styled scraping's. The Thin Wrist label ably provides as much w/every release by in house trucker's like Open City or Curtains & the Not Not Fun collective have a veritable Spahn Ranch of sonic assassins loose on the landscape as well. And as if that weren't enough, here comes this long player from Night Wounds bringin it's own brand of aural slaughter to the barnyard. Released on the Woodsist label, 'Allergic To Heat' is a solid block of dunt that fuses the distant Kraut thump of nascent Savage Republic w/the No Wave distillation of (early) Silver Abuse & End Result that's capable of peelin both skin 'n paint, either of which is dandy by me in these frigid times (I could stand to lose a couple pounds & an apt. makeover wouldn't hurt). Not that I'm insinuatin Night Wounds studied the moves of any of them bands. Hell, for all I know, they might've work up one mornin, heard something by Sightings or Blues Control, thought they was Pop bands & figured it weren't a bad racket to be in. Some people's got strange notions. All's I know is that they's armed w/both squall 'n thunder & hats off to Woodsist from providin the lightning to ignite this record like a Mars bonfire. Nice screen printin on the jacket too. Let's see...a NYC label makin itself available for an LA band...I do believe we's all FINALLY startin to 'just get along'. Amen for that!. The band is based in Portland now, and the album's also on CD from Corleone. As good as the record is, this band does especially excel in live performance, where it becomes apparent that they've uniquely yinned their authentic bleak no-wave guitar tones and rhythmic skeletons to the yang of engaging catchiness and singalong choruses, and that mutated sax which adds an alluring lushness is the tastiest gravy on top.
Twin Crystals are normally a duo from Vancouver, BC. Shuffling rhythms propel an icy Martin Rev (Suicide, know?) edge while Jesse (whom you may know from Channels 3 & 4) adds a strong dose of charisma, like if Alan Vega's style had been bred on the young Prince rather than Elvis, the lounge years.
Terrestrial is a new band from Sacto and Davis. These dayglonoise/jamrockers will plead their case to the jury, but as we have already grown accustomed to the rulingness of ex-members of HGCG and thee Standard Tribesman himself, we are already predisposed to return a verdict of not guilty of sucking.
DANCE CONTEST RULES: During each band, a winner will be picked by me based strictly on my own personal opinion of what is awesome. Two bands rock, two band electro, so the playing field is fairly level between people who actually know how to dance and people who just spazz around or do some interpretive lurch/bop action. Four bands, four winners.
Winners gain free entry to all "Feats of Strength" shows from 7/29 through 8/6. Winners also get free super-deluxe beverage reserve at DAM House show on 7/28 with Sexy Prison, Night Wounds, and Twin Crystals.
If you care not for competition, this show's just gonna be a really fun time regardless.
Panther is Charlie from Portland, formerly the singer of The Planet The, a masterful stage commander with tai chi-ish dancemoves. His electro-funk is getting slinkier and more Prince-ly. You might not even need to be a fan of the music to enjoy the show. Here, watch...
No Doctors are rad bros from Oakland via Chicago via Minneapolis. They had been known for the blues-soaked garage barrage of their Hunting Season album when they moved to the west coast, but on their brand-new Origin & Tectonics LP+CD (180g vinyl comes packed w/CD), they snap to a form more objectively recognized as blues-based rock but still take it over-the-top with their spirit and realness. This is an excellent record, and Elvis DeMorrow is a bonafide guitar hero now. Someone's gonna win the contest probably during this particular song...
Copy is Markus from Portland, and BPM mag says of his latest album: "If Marius Libman is concerned with being pegged as another Eighties' revivalist, he's not showing it. Sure, it'd be easy to discredit his debut album as the definition of his production monicer - a Copy.Yet there's more to Mobius Beard than meets the precursory preview. Occupying a strange space between Ghostly glitch and saccharin-sweet electro-pop, there's a suprising unpredicability within each track. On "Plagiarhythm", warm phonograph pops and a seemingly tepid hip hop beat play sleight-of-hand on the ears, suddenly engaging as swirling cyclic melodies skate figure-eights around organ-drum rhythms just this side of Ratatat. "It's A Little Too Late" combines the gleeful spirit of Yaz filtered through an NES emulator. Throughout the rest of the album, Copy continues eschewing the boring winks and prerequisite electro-set posturing for sincerity, and Mobius Beard reflects the sound of an artist who removed the tongue from his cheek before licking the 9-volt of Dre, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Isolee. Zap!"
The Pizzas are Sacto's newest garagepunk band to sneer snidely and Gregg-jangle into your heart. Members include Matt K. of th'Losin' Streaks and ex-Zodiac Killers and Charles of Rock the Light, Megacools, Sunshine Smile, and a million other Sacto bands that sometimes mix the sloppunk with discipledom of Ginn and/or Moon. These four songs sound awesome...
Kinda schizo of us to do a show with two righteous rockers and two electro-booyar-poppers, but HEY! Double the constituents equals more fun fashion faux-pas dagger-starin' (no, actually, I think we can probably all get along!).
This is the first show in a series we call SACTO/DAVIS FEATS OF STRENGTH FEST (if someone besides John Pritchard or me goes to all of these shows, something awesome will come your way from me to you (I haven't decided what yet)).
NOTE: KDVS streams and archives were down due to a malfunction before this program. Because it is rare for this show to have special guests, this program will be repeated live with minor playlist modifications, and the entire studio A performance by Snake Apartment will be re-broadcast on Wednesday, July 25 from 10 p.m. to 12 midnight.
(This program was largely rebroadcast, and several of the selections were even replayed on vol. 142 because of reader demand (thanks!).--DJ Rick)
PUNISHMENT OF LUXURY // Brainbomb // Secrets 7" // United Artists 1979 ANAL BABES // Sam´s Disciple (.44) // Cocaine Swastika 10" // Incognito 1998 TRACTOR SEX FATALITY // Braces // Braces 7" // Kill Sounds/Unscene Sounds *new RANCID VAT // Destroy Nature // Justice: This Is What We Do to Traitors // Horton/Reflex 1989 HOMOSTUPIDS // Mister Payback // The Intern LP // Parts Unknown *new ONE TRAP // title in Japanese // v/a: East Style // Pestilential Mental Activity 1994 EAT SKULL // Dead Families // demo CDR // no label *new SNAKE APARTMENT live in Studio A EX OBLIVIONE // Squid // v/a: World War Zero 2xCDR // Deathbomb Arc *new PINK REASON // New Violence // 1st 7" // Savage Quality 2006 MATTRESS // Mirror // In Your Pocket 7"+CDR // Malt Duck *new BLACK HUMOR // Burn the Welcome Mat // self-titled // Fowl 1982 BLACK HUMOR // Neo Hippies CHURCH POLICE // Gilligan's Wings // Gilligan's Wings 7" // Skulltones *new BILLY BAO // Bilbo's Incinerator // Bilbo's Incinerator 7" // W.Mo 2005 GOD'S GIFT // People // These Days 7" // Newmarket 1979 BRAINBOMBS // Jack the Ripper Lover // Jack the Ripper Lover 7" // self-released 1989 SWORD HEAVEN // Town Hag // Entrance // Load *forthcoming "interview" w/ Snake Apartment DER TEENAGE PANZER KORPS // Destroy the Future // Harmful Emotions // Siltbreeze 2007
I subbed in for Scott Soriano's "Rebel Kind" radio last night. You can download the program FROM THIS LINK HERE w'in 10 weeks of this date.
Or, you can stream it AT THIS LINK before July 25, 2007.
CHEVEU // El Tortuga // split 7" w/ Tyvek // Ss recordS *new HIS ELECTRO BLUE VOICE // Das // Fog 7" // Ss *new PINK REASON // Down on Me // By a Thread 7" // Trick Knee Productions *new AMBULANCE // Bobby Fischer // split 7" w/ Indian Bingo // Independent Project 1990 THE WAKE // Testament // Harmony // Factory 1982 UNREST // Light Command // Cath Carroll // Teenbeat 1993 ASHTRAY BOY // I Am Sponge // The Macho Champions // Ajax 1994 PIN GROUP // The Power // self-titled // Siltbreeze 1997 (orig 1982) THE KINGDOM // Arcadia of My Youth // Unitas 7" // Jet 2003 DELL BLACKWELL // Tasks Not Assigned // v/a: Flat Gettin It // Scenery Audio Archive *new MOUNTAINS AND RAINBOWS // Knock Me Out // Knock Me Out b/w Indian 7" // Cass *new COMUS // Drip Drip // First Utterance // Get Back 1971 BRI WHITE // title unknown // split 7" w/ James Fella // Gilgongo *new U.S. GIRLS // Prove It All Night [B. Springsteen] // July 2007 Tour CDR // self-released *new CROMAGNON // Caledonia // Cave Rock // ESP-Disk 1969
SILVER DAGGERS // New High & Ord // New High & Ord // Load *new SOFT SHOULDER // Doomshel // split 7” w/ Baby Gecko // Gilgongo/Macro-Eden/Robothouse *new NIGHT WOUNDS // Damage // Allergic to Heat // Corleone *new THE NEW FLESH // Memory Scrap // Dog 7” // Terra Firma/Human Conduct *new THE BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH // Garden // v/a: PDX Pop Now 2007 2xCD // PDX Pop Now! *new SILENTIST // Chariot Swing // Chariot Swing CDEP // Celestial Gang 2005 FAULOUAH // Grump Up the Volume // v/a: Flat Gettin It // Scenery Audio Archive *new LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS // Little Debbie Garbage Can Sugar Lips // Glamorous Piles & Puffy Saddlebags // Apop *new LE TON MITÉ // Les Patates // Les Petits Contes pour les Petits Canards 7” // Le Vilain Chien *new LE CHEVALIER DE RINCHY // Le Ballade en Vélo // Mes Plus Belles Chansons D'Amour 7” // Le Vilain Chien 2006 T.V. COAHRAN // Islandfather // 1: Township of Cecil // no label *new a. Pilgrim Ship b. Favorite Things c. Islandfather SPARKS // In the Future // Indiscreet // Island 1975 *request SPARKS // Whippings and Apologies // A Woofer in Tweeter´s Clothing // Bearsville 1973 *request JP-RAD-ICE // Rite // Combat // Scenery Audio Archive 2004 ZED // Kwizatz Haderach // Visions of Dune // Initial 1979 JAWS // Soft Comedy // 2nd CDR // no label 2004 TICKLEY FEATHER // Sex Face // split 7” w/ Bermuda Triangles // CNP *new U.S. GIRLS // Days [Kinks] // July 2007 Tour CDR // no label *new MOUNTAINS AND RAINBOWS // Indian // Knock Me Out b/w Indian 7” // Cass *new ROBIN WILLIAMS ON FIRE // Dog in a Bathtub // split c20 w/ Oscillator // Deathbomb Arc Tape Club *new MEERCAZ // Fan of a Daze // MySpace mp3 *new CATHOLIC BOYS // 7 & 7 Is [Love] // Dead Ball 7” // Trick Knee Productions *new SICK-E’s // 6 Faces of Satan // Whispers 7” // Going Underground *new SICK-E’s // So Sick // Mankind 7” // Square Wave *new FINAL SOLUTIONS // Fake Puke // Songs by Solutions // Goner *new WHITE SAVAGE // Destroy Your Style // Destroy Your Style 7” // HoZac *new GUCCI QUATTRO // Circuits // MySpace mp3 *new VOLT // I Don´t Feel So Good // self-titled LP/CD // In The Red *new BERNARD SZAJNER // Superficial Music 2 // Superficial Music // Initial 1981 * NERO’S DAY AT DISNEYLAND // trk 8 // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot 3 // Deathbomb Arc *new * VANKMEN // Oakland Train Stops * REALICIDE // trk 2 * THE TOILET // Shit con Carne * BEACH BALLS // Out Here Slangin´ That Aggro-Crag * EUSTACHIAN // Freddy´s Trenchmouth * TIK///TIK // Jazz Piggy
* all from "The Fruit Will Rot 3" compilation of nine 3" CDRs.
CHEVEU // El Tortuga // split 7" w/ Tyvek // Ss recordS *new THE ANALS // Ditch // mp3 LEPER PRINT // Lifetime Movies // split cassette w/ The Wrists // Eye Damage *new LEADERS // Bad News // mp3 MEERCAZ // She Piece // mp3 HIS ELECTRO BLUE VOICE // Fog // Fog b/w Das 7" // Ss *new A FRAMES // A.O.D. (demo) // mp3 TALBOT TAGORA // Alphabet Soup // Catface 7" // self-released *new ABE VIGODA // Gallop // Summer Tour CD 2006 // self-released 2006 ABE VIGODA // A Bell Though, That´s Fucked Up // Comes Alive Reduxzz 3" CDR // L.A. Is Waxpaper 2004 MIKA MIKO // Challenge the Throne // Treasure Tropics // Not Not Fun 2006 BLANK DOGS // Outside Alarmer // Doorbell Fire 7" // Sweet Rot *forthcoming PINK REASON // By a Thread // By a Thread 7" // Trick Knee Productions *new PINK REASON // Thrush // Cleaning the Mirror // Siltbreeze 2007 PLANTS // A Hidden World Exposed // Photosynthesis // Strange Attractors Audio House *new QUEM QUAERITIS // TV! TV! Happy/Werewolves in the City // TV! TV! Happy! // Nightpass Handmade 2005 U.S. GIRLS // Outta State // July 2007 Tour CDR // self-released *new LOS LLAMARADA // It Speaks When I´m Silent // The Exploding Now // Ss 2007 PENETRATION CAMP // Argento // Four Flies on Grey Vinyl split 7" w/ Slicing Grandpa // Scatalogical Liberation Front 2006 ARACHNID ARCADE // Csket Dance Nastic Thelphosidae // 2X3" CDR // Curor *new KEVIN SHIELDS // No Good Deed Goes Unpunished // The Death of Patience // Deathbomb Arc/Entropic Tarot *new VANKMEN // Slow Survival // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot 3 9X3" CDR // Deathbomb Arc *new REALICIDE // trk 1 // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot 3 NERO'S DAY AT DISNEYLAND // Lexus Made of Bones // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot 3 CAPTAIN AHAB // Where My Dogs At? // After the Rain My Heart Still Dreams // Deathbomb Arc 2006 SEXY PRISON // Anthem for the Unyouth // Italians Who Just Saw Rocky // NASCAR 2004 POINT LINE PLANE // Deep C // self-titled CD // Sincere Brutality/Xeroid 2003 TWIN CRYSTALS // Trinity // 4trk CDR // Deer and Bird 2006 TWIN // Chariot Choogle [T.Rex] // split cassette w/Shearing Pinx // Isolated Now Waves *new NO DOCTORS // Yerba Buena // Origin & Tectonics // self-released *new HUE BLANC'S JOYLESS ONES // Time Machine // Fait Accompli // P.Trash 2006 HUE BLANC'S JOYLESS ONES // The Lecherous Ones THE FRUSTRATIONS // Nerves Are Fried // Nerves Are Fried 7" // X! Records 2006 MUTATORS // Heavy Sleeper // mp3 PUSSYGUTT // trk 1 // demos CDR // no label 2005 WE QUIT // We Looked // splt 7" w/ Warbler // Doggpony *new
It's been almost two months since the "Franco-American Friendship Tour" spread the glory of Cheveu and Tyvek to the west coast, and now that hundreds of people from Baja to British Columbia are still talking about them, surely this new split 7" will be a hot item. One song by each band represents each band at full strength. Last week, we heard Tyvek's "Future Junk," a snappy, scrappy, and scruffy little scorcher of civic-minded agitprop which still shows their healthy humorous sensibilities. Hurtling from the hip, this is the band's quickest barrage on vinyl so far, even outpacing "Honda." Big fans of the first single who were nonplussed by the rambling psych-flavored slog on the split with Cygnus should find this to be much more to their liking. This week, we hear Cheveu's "El Tortuga," led by its vampy swirl of guitar and keyboards and surprising vocal coos. This is surely Cheveu's harmonic convergence, but don't mistake it for some sissy psych-pop; twitchy neurotics are still evident as David recites the verses, and the low-rent drumbox beats insistently thump and clatter with meanness and moxie. This is a must!
These Anals are from France, too, and I've been seeing them linked to all the right bands, so I finally gave them a listen. I shouldn't have waited so long. Minimal synthpunk with a nasty streak.
On this new split cassette, two of America's finest young synthpunk bands are showing the further development of their songcraft and creativity, but not to the detriment of rawness and realness. Their venomous snot is still dripping profusely enough to delight any sneering/scowling KBD-obsessor. Leper Print--reportedly a teenaged fellow from Tri Cities, WA--nails an Icky Boyfriends cover before dropping two more precocious nuggets of blustery scum on us, including "Lifetime Movies." (Sometimes, I enjoy myself a movie on Lifetime for the cheesiness of overwrought dramatics, so I am looking into some significant meaning in this song.) I think all three of these songs are as good or better than any on the recent 6-song demo CDR, and certainly better than the songs on Leper Print's debut 7". Next week, I'll be flipping this, and you might also agree that The Wrists also sound at least as good on this tape than on their 7" from last year. This cassette was well worth the $3.50 ppd.
Leaders are synth-laden weirdpunkers from Portland who are related to Meercaz via Muzz Delgado, formerly of The Observers and about half a dozen other bands I know of. There's an authentic-sounding proto-ness to the band which makes it sound like a late-70s/early-80s American cassette underground time capsule opened up to reveal this arcane music. This is a better stab at 8-bit psych-rock than anything on disc 2 of the Todd Tamanend Clark retrospective even. I look forward to the Leaders' future with much anticipation, but that might take some patience as I'm pretty sure that this is the sidecar to Muzz's main vehicle, Meercaz, who released a great 7" that was featured a lot here half a year ago already. Meercaz also sounds like it came from a time capsule, but specifically from 1976 in Cleveland, Ohio. Whereas the songs on the debut 7" stormed out the gates from the get-go, "She Piece" diligently builds up heat until white-hot psych guitar squall pressure-cooks the space between your ears until your brains ooze out. I hope to hear plans for a follow-up record soon!
New for July on Ss is a long-awaited debut 7" for His Electro Blue Voice, an Italian band that now joins Frustration and a host of other continental Euro bands picking all the best cues from 1978-1983 postpunk that barely got scratched by the Brits and Yanks who participated in the much ballyhooed, tracksuit-clad "Postpunk Revival"™ of 2002-2003, starring The Rapture. While we're still beset with much mediocrity and redundancy from that ilk, bands like His Electro Blue Voice are creating truly atavistic music that is so much more deserving of recognition and remembering another 25 years from now. My prognosis is that new fans of this stuff won't grow out of it just because pink and black stripes are deemed "out" at danceclubs with adjoining oxygen bars.
The A Frames recorded some new songs last month for an upcoming release, and I am not privy to any specific details about whether it's an album or a single or what format it'll be on, or if this "A.O.D." song (which stands for "Angle of Depression" (so sorry, Slayer fans!)) will be on it. I don't know how the sound of this recording might change in terms of mixing and mastering, but all I can say is that the new drummer to replace Lars Finberg (now free to focus on The Intelligence) fits the band just perfectly, and the song does indeed make us all wanna hear more about what they're up to. If you will wait a month, you can see the A Frames as they trip down I-5 for a west coast tour with fellow Seattleites, the Pyramids, who are the next cousin branch of the A Frames family tree to captivate my ears. I'd love to play these Pyramids on the radio for you, but until I can at least download them, you hafta go enjoy 'em for yourself at their MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/pyramidsccmf
For the second straight week, now we hear a scintillating song from the Talbot Tagora 7" perhaps for no other reason besides (a) all four songs are awesome, and (b) I'm excited that I'm finally gonna get a glimpse of them soon. They're also traveling down I-5 for a west coast tour which leaves later this month. Their June 30th show at the Delta of Venus in Davis with Abe Vigoda, We Quit, and John Thill is part of a series of back-to-back shows that some of us are calling the "Sacto/Davis Feats of Strength" fest. So many great shows are lined up from June 27 to August 6. In fact, that A Frames show falls in there, right before Times New Viking, Little Claw, the Bayonettes, and the Standard Tribesmen at Fools Foundation in Sacto on August 5. And then the very next night at Fools, the Feats caps off with Chris from Talbot Tagora's other band, Mikaela's Fiend, with TWIN and Mika Miko, whom we hear this week with their hardest-to-find vinyl offering that is ultra-rare, outta-print, and probably otherwise nowhere to be heard by you unless you go to eBay. Most of the bands you hear this week are playing this summer in Sacto or Davis. We're definitely not starved for entertainment like we were much of 2004-2005 in the interim years immediately following Espresso Metro's demise as a venue (r.i.p.) and the closure of Primo's Swiss Club (r.i.p.). Thank our lucky stars in Sacto for Fools Foundation (and thank Liz!) and the dudes that live at 1915½ 22nd Street.
Next is one of the few bands on this playlist who are not playing live here (or anywhere). The Blank Dogs have made an awesome 12" and 7" which you've heard featured on previous playlists, but with three forthcoming records on the near horizon from the Sweet Rot, Sacred Bones, and the Florida's Dying labels, I'm very pleased to see that this side-project of Mike from the DC Snipers might just become the most prolific force in "weirdpunk" today. This mp3 will be the B-side of the new 7" on Sweet Rot. So far, the quality and quantity of Blank Dogs songs bears no inverse relationship. I just keep getting blown away by every song I hear. Flavors of obscure postpunk swirl together brilliantly in the Blank Dogs stew, such as the Twinkeyz, Braineaters, tiny flashes in the Kiwi pan, and much of what you hear on the Messthetics series, especially some of the synth-damaged stuff like Restricted Hours and The Rich and Famous. As I said before, I can make enough time and spare enough enthusiasm to claim about 50-100 current favorite bands, but I'm [i]this close[/i] to declaring the Blank Dogs as my favorite band on the planet at this very moment.
Green Bay's Pink Reason are also among my ultimate new faves, and to get everyone primed for their tour before it swings through the area with the pride of Algoma, Wisconsin, Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones, I've spun a double dose, beginning with the title song from the new 7" on Trick Knee which includes three of Pink Reason's live staples from last year's fall West Coast tour. Whereas much of Cleaning the Mirror are like the last miserable murmurs of a morphine-addled terminal sufferer minutes before catatonia, By a Thread is vigorous and more explosively melodramatic. That is not a negative comment about Cleaning the Mirror, mind you; I think it's a tremendous album that is as effective an excursion into wallowing agony as anything recorded since Joy Division did Closer. But comparing Cleaning... (or the debut Savage Quality 7" which is now legendary to Pink Reason fans) to the new 7" and the energized frustration of the live act is like comparing Closer to Unknown Pleasure or even the Warsaw demos. Unlike previous Pink Reason records, this 7" actually rips! One touch of folky-ness is still there, too; "The Devil Always Wins" is a foot-stompin' acapella crowd-pleaser (or WTFpwner, depending on each audience member's proneness to perplexion), and it brings to mind an old-timey folksong from the downtrodden hollows. Pink Reason makes the best misery and depression today.
Pink Reason & Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones tour
Thu Jul 12 Fargo, ND @ Aquarium w/ They Shoot Horses Don't They & more Fri Jul 13 Missoula, MT @ Higgin's Hall w/ Ex-Cocaine & Eyes Like Candy Sat Jul 14 Seattle, WA @ Funhouse w/ A-Frames & Kount Fistula Sun Jul 15 Olympia, WA @ Le Voyeur Mon Jul 16 Portland, OR @ Rotture w/ Tall Birds & Argumentix Tue Jul 17 Oakland, CA @ Stork Club w/ Wooden Shjips & Red Nurse Wed Jul 18 San Francisco, CA @ the Hemlock w/ Sic Alps Thu Jul 19 Sacramento, CA @ Fools Foundation w/ San Kanzagascar Fri Jul 20 Salt Lake City, UT @ Red Light Books Sat Jul 21 Denver, CO @ The Office w/ Temples & Littles Paia Sun Jul 22 Omaha, NE @ O'leavers w/ the Terminals
then, only Pink Reason & Little Claw
Sat Aug 25 Baltimore, MD @ TBA w/ the New Flesh & Captain Ahab Mon Sep 3 Cleveland, OH @ Now That's Class w/ Homostupids Fri Sep 7 St. Louis @ Apop Records
From misery and depression, we go to beauty and bliss with the Plants, whose new album alternates between two flavors of psychedelic folk: organic simplicity and textural futurism. If Pink Reason's folkiest psych reminds you of Death in June, then Photosynthesis Plants is like life in July at its most dazzling and full of hope and wonder. The singing and stringed instruments are delicate and sweet during those organic moments, and the pulsing synths...ah jeez...y'know, it's really hard for such a person as myself who likes to sing along to Sockeye's "The Boy With Breast Implants" not to make this sound cheesy, but all the electronic effects of those textural, futuristic moments shine like sunrays into all your capillaries, and just for a while, your shriveled soul sloughs off the black mold and unfurls like the wings of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. Fragile at first, but soon emboldened. Are you like many of my readers and listeners who hate the psych/folks and have much fun at the expense of pretentious come-latelies to hippie fashion norms? Go ahead and bring that prejudice to the Plants show at Delta of Venus of August 1 and see if they don't melt away that calloused, warty punkness from your cholesterol-clogged heart. I've been asked to feel a vibe that was contrived by impostors, too, and it felt like playing charades with zombies. Plants are the most honest and unpretentious psych folk band you might ever find, and their live performances translate directly.
Two years ago, I was expecting the worst when I heard that Quem Quaeritis made an album. I had seen the band twice live, and each time they took up all my patience by setting up inside a tent and playing stream-of-consciousness jamrock while one member threw stuffed animals outta the top of the tent. It's not that the music was awful...it just took too damn long to set up, and by the time the band began playing, the novelty of the tent had worn off. And then they kept playing for, like, 45 minutes! But I kept hearing great things about the wacky, wonderful genius of these Riverside fellas, mostly from trusted members of bands I love who frequented The Smell. Thanks to them, I actually sat down with this TV! TV! Happy album, only available on limited spraypainted CDR, a format I love in theory, but in reality, so much self-indulgent jizz gets passed off on the small but ardent constituency of collectors of handmade CDRs. I braced myself. Even as the Line 6 moanin' began lapping at my ears like paltry waves on a Gulfcoast beach, I had to wonder, "But when is this [i]really[/i] gonna start sucking?" But then it got really good and ramped up to a great tidal wave before mutating into a delirious rap with Lasonic-rockin' beats. This was a prelude to an exciting and unpredictable album of free jazz, dub, noise, and a few more raps. Absurd and random, but somehow cohesive, I wonder why this couldn't be made into a vinyl LP. This was on par with the best material on the 10CD boxed-set of the L.A. Free Music Society. I came to understand that I had the wrong impression of Quem Quaeritis. Copies of their split LP with Child Pornography might still be floating around out there. John Thill was a member of Quem Quaeritis, and he makes clever pop music and is touring now with Abe Vigoda. They're calling it the "Inland Pride" tour.
U.S. Girls is the solo work of Meghan Remy from Portland, who plays drums in Silver Creme and was formerly in Me Con, Hustler White, and Hux, and her first CDR release is an album-length stunner of strange drone and lo-tech klingklang which takes turns sometimes, and other times happens all at once while smartly avoiding clutter, as you can hear on "Outta State." She's on tour right now playing most of the same dates as Shearing Pinx (see schedule in the AFS v. 138 post). Fans of Jessica Rylan (or Can't) would be wise to check out U.S. Girls, as I think both these ladies explore the same adjacent areas of noise and "other" music. As the biggest Boss fan I know, Meghan shows a lotta loving care on her Springsteen cover; but it's her Kinks take that I can't wait to show you. Stay tuned for that!
The sensational teenage ragers of weirdpunk's strangest and most compelling sounds is coming to California in September. Los Llamarada made a big splash in this here corner of blogosphere when Ss unleashed their debut LP, The Exploding Now. When Roland Woodbe wrote about their performance at SxSW on Siltblog, his praises promoted a mystique as they were cut and pasted all over the net. Just knowing that they exist in Monterey, Mexico, as precocious pioneers of their own psych/no-wave amalgam makes them seem miraculous, but hearing their music, you know that they are real. They have the confidence for cold-blooded bludgeon when they're good and mad, as you can see on this video for "Lies"...
...and "I'm Sorry," performed at some strange foundry-lookin' place...
Los Llamarada are confirmed for these dates so far...
Fri Sept 14 San Francisco @ The Hemlock Sat Sept 15 Sacramento @ Fools Foundation w/ Captain Ahab & Foot Village
Also, they will be playing a street festival in San Francisco on 9/15 during the daytime along with Skaters and Tomu Tonttu.
ELECTRICK GARBAGE // L´escargot // L’escargot b/w Poupée Mecanique 7” // Hard Ckor 1979 CRISE DE NERFS // Rock à la Télé // v/a: Repérages 84 // Label X/La Péniche 1984 TERROR VISIONS // Taste It (Face) // World of Shit // FDH *new TERROR VISIONS // Itching ARTIFICIAL LIMBS // Let´s Get Inert // 5-song demo CDR // no label *new SICK-E's // Get Out // Mankind 7" // Square Wave *new NIGHT OF PLEASURE // Caesar´s Palace // Godard vs. Trufault 7" // Columbus Discount *new NECROPOLIS // Stumpf // Stumpf b/w Van v. Art 7" // Columbus Discount *new CATHOLIC BOYS // Dead Ball // Dead Ball 7" // Trick Knee Productions *new TALBOT TAGORA // Penis Gang // Catface 7" // self-released *new SHEARING PINX // New Gospel // Poison Hands // Gilgongo 2007 SHEARING PINX // Slaughterhaus // split 7" w/ Silver Daggers // Arbor *new RACCOO-OO-OON // Behold Secret Kingdom // Mud Mound 7" // Gilgongo *new BABY GECKO // Paint the Streets // split 7" w/ Soft Shoulder // Gilgongo/Macro-Eden/Robothouse *new BABY GECKO // Dino IIIIIIII YOKOHAMA HOOKS // Panic // split 7" w/ the Flip Tops // Iron Goat *new THE SHUDDERS // Battleground // Battleground 7" // Compact *new DAVID COPPERFUCK // Chalet Chalet // Chalet Chalet 7" // Party Turtle *new FUCKING ANGELS // Dead, Baby // split LP w/ Vicious Ginks // Gravity 1995 MONTERAYS // Blast Off // v/a: Strummin´ Mental part one // Crypt ROMANCE NOVELS // Another Summer // Another Summer b/w Quarter to Four 7" // Pizza Party *new TRANZISTORS // Free Electrizity // Free Electricity 7" // Young Soul Rebels 2005 TYVEK // Future Junk // split 7" w/ Cheveu // Ss recordS *new MOUNTAINS AND RAINBOWS // Knock Me Out // Knock Me Out b/w Indian 7" // Cass *new MOUNTAINS AND RAINBOWS // Tunnel Vision // Lester's Way b/w Tunnel Vision 7" // Muddy Mitten *new MICHAEL YONKERS // I Think // split 7" w/ Little Claw // X! Records *new PINK REASON // Down on Me // By a Thread 7" // Trick Knee Productions *new EX-COCAINE // With the With the When the One // Esta Guerra // Siltbreeze *new MYTHICAL BEAST // Gone to Grey // split LP w/ Pocahaunted // Not Not Fun *new PANICSVILLE + PRURIENT // I Walked My Dog // Wal-Mart: The Rubber Baron 8" // Rococo *new LEGLESS // untitled // Inconsequential (A Game to Pass the Time) 3" CDR // Terra Firma *new PISSED JEANS // My Bed // Hope For Men // Sub Pop *new NIGHT WOUNDS // X.O.T. // Allergic to Heat // Corleone *new
Back in "prime-time" for the first time in 13 years(!), I knew that I had to start this week's AFS off with something of a bang, and ever since Jack sent both sides of the "L’escargot" b/w "Poupée Mecanique" on a 2xCDR mix-tape compilation of French punk/new wave rarities from 1977-1984 from his private collection, I'd been dying to play the A-side. Usually, I get a dozen or so emails per week following each AFS, and listeners and readers of this here blog often ask questions or give comments about bands or songs that I've chosen to play, but this time, I counted a dozen people responding specfically to this song. Six haters and six lovers. That's called a successful work of art. Leave no one feeling lukewarm. To be sure, the gassy glamminess of Electrick Garbage's high-spirited vocals and guitar leads sends "L'escargot" totally over the top into the top echelon of bombastic ridic-rockers such as "Two Tub Man" by The Dictators, "Gobbin' on Life" by Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, or even the most undeniable highpoints of Turbonegro's Apocalypse Dudes (which you cannot deny despite even Bam Margera's overexposure of the band). Jack reports that the bassist of Electrick Garbage is now a famous TV actor. How strange then that the band returns such useless results in a Google search. How could someone make a record as rad as this and not be proud of it 28 years later?
Crise de Nerfs also come from Jack's 2xCDR, so there's not much else I can tell you about it other than it's French and it's very cool.
If you're in significant minority who preferred Lost Sounds over Jay Reatard's Blood Visions, then World of Shit by Terror Visions is the record you've been waiting for. The 14 songs were recorded from 2002-2006. It sounds pretty much like Lost Sounds, but with Jay's voice and attitude pervading every aspect of it. So, while it's not as well-rounded as any proper Lost Sounds album, it's pulse-quickening, sharply delivered synthpunk that is raw and acerbic with that very off-kilter wit. It's billed as "Jay's synthpunk band," so that automatically invites comparisons to the canonized synthpunks of the late 70's and 80's, but it's not so much like The Screamers or Nervous Gender...maybe Rock Bottom & the Spys are closest on the nastier, rockin' songs, but this is much more contemporary-sounding, like bands such as S.I.D.S. or the Artificial Limbs, the young band from Kennewick, Washington, who follows Terror Visions this week. Their 5-song CDR should make somebody wanna make a record for them. The most terror-inducing thing about the new Terror Visions might just be the picture of Jay's pimply ass with a mound of blow on it. Dude...totally without ruth!
The Sick-E's (from southern California, I presume) are another one of those modern "synthpunk" bands with the rollicky, almost-HC rhythm and slashy guitars. This 7" EP called Mankind is a fiery three-song scorcher, but with plenty of style and taste to satisfy even many collectorscumguzzlers. Habanero-hot, for sure.
The next Sick-E's (picture above) is not out yet (July 9th), but it should sell out soon. I snatched up a white-vinyl copy on pre-order as soon as possible, and a day later, there were only a few left. Hurry over to http://www.goingundergroundrecords.com/, and get to it.
The cavalcade of Columbus hits keep coming, and this week we flip those Night of Pleasure and Necropolis records over to find that both sides burn bright, hot, and fast, too. Last year, I met a few folks who didn't share my enthusiasm for the LP by Necropolis ("too indie rock," some complained), but if you were one of them, you need to put that attitude behind you. This new 7" cuts the fat that you didn't like and blasts that broiler at top temperature to make this sizzling sound.
Sadly, the Catholic Boys are dead, but Todd Trickknee saw fit to give us a new 7" with three raw blasts from probably the most exciting gah-ragers I saw live in 2005. I'm still not sure if my mind has been unboggled yet after the deft drumming abilities of Eric Apnea made me question the usefulness of these exalted prog-wizard clavé kings. I felt that band drive into my sternum even as I watched them from a seemingly safe distance. And it was sun was shining through the blinds at the time. Surely it was too early to be having that much fun. There's a sweet shitcaked cover of Love's "7 & 7 Is" and a midpaced stomper of the flip. This is also a great-looking sleeve.
Talbot Tagora, the young Seattle band with Chris from Mikaela's Fiend showing an altogether different (and more musical) side to his most excellent guitar-playing, first became a fan-fave here last year with their own DIY Volcano Girls CDR. They've got sweet charms to allure even the pure pop fan, but there's brimming tension and raw energy to gnarl it up for fans of "teh w31Rdp*nk," too. As I might've said before, this is working a unique stylistic intersection somewhere between The Intelligence and Abe Vigoda. This is one of four songs from their excellent first 7", another self-release, which unlike the CDR thankfully does not suffer from a noticeable fidelity deficit from bad mp3 (re)compression. I still say that if those Volcano Girls tapes are mastered correctly, it would make for an outstanding LP! Can't wait to see 'em later this summer!
I don't hafta wait long for the Shearing Pinx to come because they are in Sacto at the Fools Foundation tomorrow! Of course, when I say a band is "great," it might not be too resounding because people know that I have a high level of enthusiasm for something like 100 current bands that I might call "favorite," but you know I can make time to support all of them. But then, among that hundred, there's really four or five of them that I think are absolutely incredible...and I dare say are even important. Shearing Pinx are one of those bands! They are prolific, but always excite me with each new ephemeral CDR or cassette release which are nothing like a quick scribble on a napkin like the ones Picasso would pass off to starstruck tourists. Even if a too little or too much thought go into a rambling jam of free-scrawl, this band wins out because I can tell that the way they feel music is on a philosophically untouchable level that immediately expressed to the listener...or at least me, anyway. Scrawly improv free-rock is just one small part of what they do. Their releases on permanent vinyl and CD format involve rehearsed songs of taut, urgent, juggernaut rhythm, talus-grinding guitar, and cool delayed vocals that imbue things with a psychedelic flavor, but are still discernable. Fans of early Sonic Youth, the Stretchheads, and maybe even the first coupla Venom P. Stinger LPs oughta get to know this band!
Here's their tour itinerary...
30 Jun Sacto @ Fools Foundation w/ Ettrick, Us Girls, Standard Tribesmen 1 July San Francisco @ Hemlock Tavern w/ Red Nurse, Origami, Jenny Hoyston (of Erase Errata) 2 July Bakersfield @ Backstage w/ Me & My Arrow, Lord Galvar, Alan Greenspan + Swimsuit Rights 3 Jul Los Angeles @ The Smell w/ Mincemeat or Tenspeed & Beach Balls 4 Jul Santa Ana @ The Clinic w/ Robin Williams On Fire, Casy & Brian 5 Jul Phoenix @ Trunkspace w/ Soft Shoulder & Us Girls 6 Jul Albuquerque @ A Space Maybe w/ Finally Punk, US Girls, the Dozal Brothers 7 Jul Richardson, TX @ Radio UTD Summer Noise Fest "The Fuzz Ball" 8 Jul Shreveport, LA @ Cooper Manor 10 Jul Atlanta @ Eyedrum w/ Eiliyas, Club of Rome, Battlecat, & Dandi Wind 11 Jul Knoxville, TN @ The Birdhouse w/ Brain Lesion, Lobster Lobster Lobster, Us Girls 12 Jul Charlottesville, VA @ Tea Bazaar w/ Us Girls 13 Jul Philadelphia @ The Breadbin w/ Masato Tanaka & Us Girls 14 Jul NYC @ Silent Barn w/ Print, Cocaine to Rogaine, Apeshit 15 Jul NYC @ Glasslands Gallery w/ The Fugue & Worms of Dirt 16 Jul Cambridge, MA @ Charlie's Kitchen w/ Life Partners, The Maul, Us Girls 17 Jul Northampton, MA @ Chris Dooleys Dad's antique shop w/ Child Bride, EUU, & Us Girls 18 Jul Cincinnati, OH @ Skull Lab w/ Child Bride, Us Girls, & Abe Vigoda 19 Jul Detroit @ The CAID w/ Us Girls, Child Bride, EUU, & Tyvek 20 Jul Chicago @ TBA 21 Jul Minneapolis @ TBA w/ Gay Beast, Abe Vigoda, John Thill 22 Jul Minneapolis @ The Pocketknife w/ Gumbi & Us Girls 23 Jul Kansas City, MO @ Creative Mind Arts w/ Banana Hands & The Sperm 25 Jul Denver @ Rhinoceropolis! w/ Archaeopteryx, Animal, & Pictureplane 26 Jul Boise, ID @ TBA 27 Jul Portland, OR @ House Show w/ Me Con, Chrome Wings, & more 28 Jul Seattle @ The Greenhouse (possibly)
I will get to more reviews and anecdotes about the rest of the playlist later...maybe Monday! Thanks for listening!
Last night, I saw an outstanding performance in a Sacramento living room by a Portland band called Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!, one of the newest and most life-affirming free-jazz outfits to soar the skies from your own blown-out minds. The band is a quartet of tenor and alto sax, drums, and piano, and all four members are astoundingly excellent, skitter tastefully between tight and fancy-free, and they all really feel it and are contagious.
26 Jun 2007 8:00 Oakland - 21 Grand 27 Jun 2007 8:00 San Francisco - Hemlock Tavern 28 Jun 2007 10:00 Santa Barbara - live on KCSB 91.9FM 10-12 mid 29 Jun 2007 8:00 Los Angeles - Dangerous Curve 30 Jun 2007 8:00 National City (near San Diego) - Smog Shop 1 Jul 2007 8:00 Fillmore, CA - The Grounds 2 Jul 2007 7:00 Salt Lake City - Red Light Bookstore 3 Jul 2007 8:00 Missoula, MT - The Palace 4 Jul 2007 8:00 Coeur D'Alene, ID - Moscow Bay 5 Jul 2007 8:00 Seattle - 1412 Gallery 6 Jul 2007 9:00 Portland - Valentine's w/Evolutionary Jass Band!
That July 6th show looks hot! Roadtrip, maybe?
If I compare this to any free-jazz greats of yore, you'll think I'm exaggerating. So just have a listen!
Once again, I was so busy at the office that I was forced to come late to my own radio show. But again DJ Fuzzbox Flynn filled in for the first hour until 1:00 when I took over. Flynn’s selections are in italics. That’s the last time I’ll be late on account of work until the thick of next year’s legislative season. Also, here’s some news…“Art for Spastics” is moving from Monday nights at 12 midnight to 2:00 a.m. to the much saner hour of 10:00 p.m. ‘til midnight on Wednesdays. That goes into effect next week, so if you listen live at 90.3 FM in the Davis and Sacramento area (or if you stream the show live at http://www.kdvs.org/), remember!
THE OUTSIDERS // Freeway // Vital Years // Gift of Life 1993 THE WIPERS // Now is the Time // Over the Edge // Braineater 1983 THE WIPERS // Youth of America // Youth of America // Park Avenue 1981 TERMINAL CHEESECAKE // Pony Boy // Angels in Pigtails // Pathological 1990 GOD’S GIFT // Soldiers // self-titled 12” EP // New Hormones 1981 THE LEWD // Kill Yourself // v/a: Killed By Death #3 // Redrum 1978 TAPEWORM // Break My Face // v/a: Killed By Death #9 // Redrum 1978 FLIRT // Degenerator // v/a: Killed by Death # F.U.2 // Redrum 1978 TAMPAX // UFO Dictator // v/a: Killed By Death #7 // Redrum 1978 MENTALLY ILL // Tumor Boy // Gacy's Place: the Undiscovered Corpses // Alternative Tentacles 1979 THE SCREAMERS // Beat Goes On // In A Better World 2Xcd // Extravertigo/Xeroid 1977 NERVOUS GENDER // Monsters // Music From Hell split 12” w/ Beelzebub Youth // Subterranean 1981 ZOLAR X // Science // Timeless // Alternative Tentacles 1979 ALU // Allzeit Bereit // Autismenschen // C.I.P. 2006 (orig 1980-1984) INSTANT AUTOMATONS // John´s Vacuum Cleaner // Another Wasted Sunday Afternoon // Hyped2Death LESTER & THE BREW // Bad Day in the City/Eyesight Bad // v/a: Messthetics #103: D.I.Y. 77 - 81, Midlands I // Hyped2Death *new FAXED HEAD // Show Pride in Coalinga // 1st 7” // no label // 1993 DOPPLEGANGER SQUID // Hellbender // only 7” // Waggletone 1994 TYVEK // untitled // split 7” w/ Cygnus // self-released *new EL JESUS DE MAGICO // LGNO // Funeral Home Sessions 7" // Columbus Discount *new LITTLE CLAW // Ice Age // split 7” w/ Michael Yonkers // X! Records *new THE NEW FLESH // Dog // Dog b/w Memory Scrap 7” // Terra Firma/Human Conduct *new SILVER DAGGERS // Life Freedom-Style in All Its Pride & Glory // split 7” w/ Shearing Pinx // Arbor *new CRAPPY NIGHTMAREVILLE // Black Beam Dub // Neutron Dracula 7” // Black Velvet Fuckere *new ETTRICK // Raven Harvest // Feeders of Ravens // Not Not Fun *new DEEP JEW // Night Eyes 2 // Bored Fortress Singles Club split 7” w/ Mindflayer // Not Not Fun *new AUFGEHOBEN // Axiologue // picdisc 7” // White Denim *new KITTY MIDWIFE // Venus in Spookyland // DBA Tape Club split c20 w/ Child Pornography // Deathbomb Arc *new VANKMEN // Don´t Want to Sleep // v /a: The Fruit Will Rot 3 (nine 3” CDRs!) // Deathbomb Arc *new REALICIDE // trk 5 // v /a: The Fruit Will Rot 3 FACTUMS // Organ of Self Esteem // Tour CDR // no label 2007 FACTUMS // Anemone BLANK DOGS // Housefly // Yellow Mice Sleep 7” // HoZac *new LES PROVISOIRES // Quiet Room // Quiet Room EP // Monsieur Vinyl 1982
I thought I knew all there was to know about God's Gift until this week thanks to the sleuthwork of Jack from Volt and Pollymaggoo Records in France. Interest has been brewing recently about that. I learned of their 1980 four-song 12" EP and 1982 7" by accident thumbing through records in the cavernous KDVS library, and I was riveted by their relentless deadpan bleating and extreme Englishness. I've recommended the band over the years to fans of the most skeletal moments of early Fall records and drier material by Country Teasers. Last week, we went searching for connections to the band, and although nothing's turned up yet, we have learned that there are others who remember them fondly.
We just learned that they had a debut 7" called These Days which pre-dates the 12", and Jack said that the sax on the B-side "as frightening as the Brainbombs' Dan Raberg's wailing trumpet." We've also learned that they had a full-length cassette album (Folie Á Quatre) and appeared on a compilation double-cassette alongside such names as Bauhaus, Death in June, Nico, and Test Department. We'll be getting a chance to hear songs from the debut and the cassette soon. But even if one Belgian writer does not mention God's Gift in a potential forthcoming New Hormones label feature for the Record Collector, interest in the band should continue to grow. Chuck Warner of Hyped2Death has pegged them as a must-find band for his awesome archival label's Messthetics series, and with any luck, they might appear on Messthetics #104 or #105, which Chuck promises to include "substantially odder/more primitive" material than what we've enjoyed on 100-103. I can hardly wait to hear those! Certainly the oddest track on the brand-new Messthetics #103 compilation is this sorta medley of negatively-charged extreme Englishness by Lester & the Brew, so as soon as I could get to the KDVS studios from my busy office (yes, I was working 'til midnight again!), I had to drop this on you.
More mainstream media discovery of the Neil Hamburger phenomenon and his increasingly Koppel-sounding (and not-as-funny) soundbytes on basic cable interview shows has us longtime fans pining for his comedy gold of old. It seems that the question still persists as to whether Neil might have been a masked member of Faxed Head, the enigmatic band whose first release was this 7" record with its sleeve embossed with a map of central California starring the much-maligned stinkhole of a town called Coalinga, situated at the halfway point of the boring I-5 drive from Sacto to Los Angeles. It's best known by anyone who's passed through the area as the place with a giant Harris Ranch stockyard fulla cows standing shoulder-to-shoulder in their own shit with nary a blade of munchable grass in sight. Someone came up with the clever name of "Cowschvitz" to describe the agony of this landmark which is most irritatingly at least twice the nose-sore as it is an eye-sore.
The town is actually a few miles west of the freeway and considerably less rife with the smell of manure and slaughter, but to outsiders, the stench is often the only thing that Coalinga is known for. But to fans of Faxed Head, it's the cradle of the band's bizarre and hilarious mythology. The 7" included liner notes on very realistic Coalinga Chamber of Commerce letterhead which described a tale of teenaged fast-food employees whose failed suicide pact left each youngster horribly misfigured. The record was supposedly the result of these wretched boys winning a Chamber-sponsored "battle of the bands" event where the top prize was free studio time with talented recording professionals in San Francisco. That the sounds of this record were so awful was because the panel of judges could not bring themselves to vote against a band of severely disabled youth. The band persisted to violate rules of good taste with the same schtick for almost a decade, releasing a few full-length albums, but to a dedicated core of fans, this schtick never got old. I still laugh when I follow along with the lyric sheets today! The tug-of-war between their Coalinga civic pride and their extreme shame of their hometown is as exciting a stalemate to dissect as there ever was, and there's plenty of seemingly in-jokes about co-workers and schoolmates in Coalinga to make you feel like a town insider.
I saw the band once at Old Ironsides in Sacramento, and now I realize how lucky I was to see them. It's probably the funniest show I've ever seen. As members would simulate epileptic seizures, naughtily-attired nurses would administer serum to keep the show going. The band rarely ever played live at home (presumably San Francisco, as the band had always been rumored to include members of the Zip Code Rapists and/or Mr. Bungle) or away. This early Faxed Head including the schizo blackened march tune--"The Colors of Coalinga"--had a claptrap junkiness to it which was quite a bit dumbed down from either possible parent-band, and it almost made the myth in those liner notes seem almost believable. And it's not as if Coalinga isn't already plausible as the scene of a teen suicide pact. The place is really that depressing!
By its own virtuous claptrap junkiness, the first and only 7" of Doppleganger Squid [sic] fits in perfectly at this time. Little is known about this band, especially now that the only non-AFS-related Google-search result that mentioned the band has disappeared from the internet. But I think that they were from a part of North Carolina that was at least semi-rural. When I first heard this in 1994 on Todd Urick's "Hometown Atrocities" show, as the cruddy drums began bashing, I remember thinking that I was hearing some lost late-70's tapes of Chrome. I always wanted my own drumkit to sound like that. Except for certain inept 80's teen HC/thrash and maybe the first Cure album, I don't think any band played so confidently on ultra-cheap equipment, as if to say very brazenly that "We spent $199 on a new drumkit, and we think it sounds awesome!" But even as fried and blown-out as the vocals and guitars sound, Doppleganger Squid soon broke away from the Chrome mold and took their scruffy psych-punk flirtatiously toward the ubiquitous mid-90's pop-punk. But hold the cheese! The Squid were more than tasteful enough to do so whether they were creating snappy, scrappy foot-tap'n melodies or noodling into weirdpunk territory. This is a great record that sadly never got noticed, so raid the dollar bins of North Carolina if you can!
Come to think of it, Doppleganger Squid's probably been on my mind subconsciously since last month when Tyvek seared their way into my forever memory with their unique blend of infectious melody and the almost Tampaxian weird. The Squid's one of the few that bear any sorta analogy to the sounds of Tyvek on tour with the added damage of crazed wah-wizard Dr. Teet. A few people around here have been talking about how seeing Tyvek makes them wanna start a new band. Get to it! Footage from their "Franco-American Friendship Tour" with Cheveu is just starting to hit YouTube, and this footage from Tyvek's performance at 21 Grand in Oakland doesn't approach the greatness of the many highpoints I saw--they were fraught with guitar amp frustration, and underpowered P.A., and lab-like room dynamics--but this is still probably better than any show you've seen recently...
Columbus, Ohio, is becoming the center of my rock universe again in 2007. Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and Gaunt aren't back together or anything, but on the heels of last year's ruling Psychedelic Horseshit 7", Times New Viking's second Siltbreeze album earlier this year reaffirmed that they are one of today's most exciting bands; and now Columbus Discount Records is about to drop three awesome new 7" EPs next week, including this one by a group of previous unknowns called El Jesus de Magico which makes its second straight appearance. Last week, we also heard the new Necropolis and Night of Pleasure, too. All three records are overdriven fuzzblasts steeped in the righteous traditions of all the great Columbus bands since the days when the Electric Eels were exiled there from Cleveland, including every Jim Shepard, Mike Rep, and Ron House vehicle. They all get my highest recommendations, but El Jesus de Magico is the nastiest and most laid-back of the three new Columbus Discount EP's. It's perfect for this weather. The only thing you can do when it's 100°F with a broken A/C is to lay on the floor and blast this record.
More pump-priming for the upcoming west coast tour of Little Claw with Times New Viking...Here's an epic scuzz-pummeller by Little Claw which will beat you into submission before carrying your pulpy head off on fuzzy cloud of feedback as Kilynn coos a little lullabye. The rendering of "Ice Age" is raw and nasty, but not loathsome in the least. Another great song by these faves!
The A-side of the brand-new New Flesh single is a writhing punisher more like the the songs on their second album Vessel than the debut Parasite, but it is also rawer and nastier production-wise...nearly as much as the one-sided 7" from last summer with the vocals of Robert Inhuman of Realicide, so that should suit some of you better than ever, especially if you wanted to believe my Brainbombs comparison that I dropped on these guys back in 2005. Next week, we're gonna hear some real pain from Legless, a New Flesh-related noise project with a new 3" CDR on the same label.
I realize now that this Silver Daggers cut was spinning too fast at 45 RPM, but it's probably not of much consequence as it comes off more like incidental instro music, perfect for DJs to talk over. It's preceded by a live recording at The Smell which I'm sure we'll hear soon. Still, this split 7" of two of my utmost favorite current bands (can't wait to see the Shearing Pinx here in Sacto on Saturday!) is absolutely worth tracking down, as is their New High and Ord LP and CD on Load Records, which is surely a sharp stunner.
Next, we get really free on this B-side of the new single from Louisville, Kentucky's Crappy Nightmareville, which has an ensemble cast of musicians including at least one name I recognize from a Sapat record. The A-side is not so much for my tastes, as it's a circus-like waltzy composed number that I didn't finish before I flipped it. But the B-side is some wonderfully ominous brooding. I am gonna go back to side A...it's just that I was late getting here from work, remember? Still, as a group of what I assume are basically rock musicians with long hair doing something kinda like free jazz, this rates way, way up there just on the strength of "Black Beam Dub" alone.
Another band I'm excited to see at the Shearing Pinx show at Fools Foundation on Saturday, June 30, is Ettrick, San Francisco's duo of Jacob Heule and Jay Korber, two amazing sorcerers of free/blackened/death/jazz. Not Not Fun has just issued their debut vinyl LP, and it is a scorcher, and unlike their other recent CDR releases featuring mostly protracted epic-length live-recorded improvs, this album of eight pieces is a great way for less patient listeners to get acquainted with Ettrick in bite-size doses that are immediately impactful. "Raven Harvest" is the most definitive Ettrick moment on this LP, as it might be the only song wherein each member alternately dons drummer and sax assassin hats.
Deep Jew have never sounded as song-like as in the first minute or so of this song from their contribution to the Bored Fortress split 7" club series. Those actual structured chord progressions are but the inviting candy shell that cracks off to reveal a violent center that detonates like a bomb in your face. Consult your maxillofacial reconstructive surgical specialist after playing with this one! Year two of Bored Fortress has been gnarly! Not a dud side yet!
Here's a picture-disc 7" single of very formidable (certainly albumworthy) outtakes by the UK's Aufgehoben from the sessions that resulted in their most recent on Holy Mountain. Their use of guitar and percussive-sounding electronics make bring to mind a freer Sightings. Where I've not had the stamina to make it through their four albums, this appetizer serving does have me salivating. I think I'm gonna go back in.
Kitty Midwife is Shoosha from Portland who makes sample-rich jams of corruptive fuckery with the playfulness of a kitten unraveling a yarnball. We've recently heard a lot of her on AFS, including her candlewax-dripped collab 3" with former Sacto sweetheart Lala, her Animal Writes project with Dan from Shitty Vibe Smasher and James Squeaky a.k.a. Argumentix, and her solo debut under her original name Squid Baby. This is for fans of never-static noise, and it's rather unique for its brightness of attitude and hyper-texturalism. This belongs on a vinyl LP, I think. I excerpted it here because I was running low on time, but the whole thing is immensely listenable from start to finish for something so anti-musical.
Vankmen is Sacto gabbernoise like I never knew existed here until I finally heard on this, the third compilation in the Fruit Will Rot series which unleashes NINE THREE-INCH CDR's in each edition. We also hear the excruciating Realicide from this ambitious set which also features Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Beach Balls, Unicorn Hard-on, The Toilet, Eustachian, Nero's Day at Disneyland, and Tik///Tik. This is certainly the most punishment in one package that Deathbomb Arc has ever meted out. Taking it all in at once is like eating a giant bag of individually wrapped candies, but not like the ones they sell at Safeway...more like the ones they sell at CostCo. Remember back in the 80's when every October, you'd hear the TV news warning parents of Halloween candies spiked with drugs? This compilation is like that CostCo bag of candies, spiked with drugs. The fruit will rot 'cos you'll eat nothing but candy until your heart explodes. Which is to say that this is great! Would you believe that these particular track selections are two of the least relentless songs in the entire set? Be warned!
Next up is the Factums like you've never heard them before on AFS. I've played this Seattle band on several shows in the past two years, but I've always favored their songs over their experimental interludes. But on this CDR, it's all interludes, and they've never pulled the free-ramble jam(un)rock off better than this. Indeed, the "rock" is almost completely outta the equation here. Some tracks are more organic sounding, while others recall minimal synth oddities 35-45 years ago. You might hafta ask the band at their MySpace how you can get a copy of this...I dunno. It doesn't even have a name, but you can tell them that it's in a white envelope with an insect xeroxed onto it, and it has 12 songs on it. You can also wait for the band to release some records. Yes, it's finally gonna happen. Siltbreeze will do it stateside, and Pollymaggoo in France. That's two different records.
At last, I get to gush about my favorite brand-new band in the world, the Blank Dogs, who I understand is actually just a one-man project of Mike from the DC Snipers. This is from the 7" on HoZac which you should hurry to get before quantities dry up and legend of Mike's ingenuity spreads. Dig into AFS v. 136 and you'll hear another from this 7" plus another awesome song from The First Two Weeks 12" EP, which has six songs that were literally conceptualized, perfected, and recorded within 14 days of Mike getting the idea that he should do this side-project thing. That sounds like it could be bad...a record made like that, right? But I guess when you've got that great a handle on how to make a catchy pop melody and a rare sensibility that allows you to twist it into some sorta otherworldly psychedelic new wave without making it discernable as a great pop song. You hear some Twinkeyz here, some Second Layer there, and maybe some of the more songlike songs of Throbbing Gristle, but on each record, the Blank Dogs sacrifice none of their own identity.
Mike also apparently has this side-side-project thing called Teeth, and the one song so far sounds very promising, too... http://www.myspace.com/teethareforeating
Finally, here's another old nugget of French punk/new wave from the early 80's that was seldom heard in areas of the world where people pigheadedly wanna hear things only in English. Les Provisoires made an LP in the mid-80's that I wasn't too hot about...kinda cool, but a little too produced, and a little too smooth. Little did I know that they made this early EP a couple years earlier which was as intractable, raw, and brutish a postpunk record as you will hear. I never suspected that these guys had this in them. Thank you, Jack, for bringing this to my attention.
Remember that you won't be seeing my playlist for AFS v. 138 next week until Thursday morning because my showtime is moving.
T.V. Coahran and Charles Leo Gebhardt IV joined me in the studio this week to talk about their music and their tour so far, and to plead for any last minute bookings (6/12? 6/13? Anywhere in Northern California...get in touch!). They each played a fantastic set "Live in Studio A" hosted and engineered by DJ Andy of "The Lewd Dance" show. Check out the link below this playlist to hear them play for you.
MINDFLAYER // Frizzle Fry 2 // Bored Fortress Singles Club split 7" w/ Deep Jew // Not Not Fun // *new SHEARING PINX // Golden Sleeper // split 7" w/ Silver Daggers // Arbor *new WHITE SAVAGE // Orphans [Teenage Jesus & the Jerks] // Destroy Your Style 7" // HoZac *new HEAVY WINGED // Dark Spring // Bored Fortress Singles Club split 7" w/ Blues Control // Not Not Fun *new HIVE MIND // Collapsed Shroud // Bored Fortress Singles Club split 7" w/ Hototogisu // Not Not Fun *new EL JESUS DE MAGICO // Indian Giver // Funeral Home Sessions 7" // Columbus Discount *new NIGHT OF PLEASURE // Bitch Pitch // Godard vs. Trufault 7" // Columbus Discount *new THE TOUCHED // Baby´s Not a Whore // Funeral Dress 7" // Black Velvet Fuckere *new TRACTOR SEX FATALITY // Coup de Tat [Circle Jerks] // Braces 7" // Kill Sounds/Unscene Sounds *new NECROPOLIS // Van v. Art // Stumpf 7" // Columbus Discount *new DAVID COPPERFUCK // Oak & Pine // Chalet Chalet 7" // Party Turtle *new SICK-E's // End of Time, End of My Mind // Mankind 7" // Square Wave *new T.V. COAHRAN // Township of Cecil // 1: Township of Cecil // Self-Released *new T.V. COAHRAN // My Other Voice [Sparks] LE TON MITÉ // Les Sardines // Les Petits Contes pour les Petits Canards 7" // Le Vilain Chien *new JAY REATARD // Feeling Blank Again // Night of Broken Glass 12" EP // In the Red *new BLANK DOGS // Ambulance // The First Two Weeks 12" // Freedom School *new BLANK DOGS // Smashed Up People // Yellow Mice Sleep 7" // HoZac *new ICK // Société d´Ombres // La Parade des Sans Illusions 7" // Enfant Terrible *new IMIAFAN // Légy a Falon (Alien Skull Pain Remix) // Légy a Falon 12" EP // 4mg 2005 IMIAFAN // Toothpaste // split 7" w/ Machinepop // 4mg *new VOLT // Where Did Body Go? // self-titled LP // In The Red *new S.I.D.S. // +/- // +/- 7" // Rob´s House *new AIR CONDITIONING // Where To Litter/Trash Burning // Dead Rails // Load *new PISSED JEANS // People Person // Hope For Men // Sub Pop *new EX-COCAINE // The Tempest // Esta Guerra // Siltbreeze *new RACCOO-OO-OON // Invisible Sun // Behold Secret Kingdom // Release the Bats *new PLANTS // Birdflowers // Photosynthesis // Strange Attractors Audio House *new PLANTS // Seedling Three PUMICE // The Only Doosh Worth Giving // Pebbles. // Soft Abuse *new TIMES NEW VIKING // Devo & Wine // Present The Paisley Reich // Siltbreeze 2007 TOUCH-ME-NOTS // Burden on Society // self-titled 10" // Yakisakana *new GRAVE BLANKETS // Foreward // split 7" w/ Touch-Me-Nots // Self-Released *new NO DOCTORS // AAO // Origin & Tectonics // Self-Released *new
Leo starts into his set within minutes of the beginning of the show. T.V. Coahran goes on at about 40 minutes into the show. Fans of Jonathan Richman and Sparks, now collapse in contentment!
I'll share reviews and anecdotes about all the bands on this playlist soon, so check back later!
As long as DIY bands and artists keep me amazed, I will keep doing radio and extreme-blogging as a tribute to them. In case you are an old classmate looking for me, yes, this is "Rick Ele" here.
If you have material available in any format, please send it to...
KDVS Radio, ATTN: Music Dept, 14 Lower Freeborn Hall, Davis, CA 95616, USA (Please don't send it to my personal ATTN; you can trust KDVS Music Directors to get the good stuff added to the largest and best music library of any radio station this side of the Mississippi! And there are dozens of other really excellent DJs here who will play the good stuff if you send it!)
...wanna get in touch about anything else? rickele(AT)gmail(DOT)com
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